The treasury department recently published a statistical survey of income taxes which attracted attention throughout the entire country. These statistics are sensational as compared with those of last year, incomes of a million dollars and over have increased, whereas incomes below five thousand dollars have decreased. It is doubtful whether it is right to draw conclusions from this as to the economic situation in general, or to see in these facts the results of the government's economic measures. For this, a single year is too short a period, and it is by no means impossible that the statistics for next year may show a reverse of tendencies.

If, however, conclusions of this kind have to be arrived at, then one must needs acknowledge that the assaults directed at the New Deal on the part of the Republicans are completely unjustified. The latter have stubbornly maintained that the tendency of the New Deal is to destroy personal property and 2to distribute the wealth of the country among the large masses of the population. That it has no such tendencies becomes clear from the statistics on income taxes, even though it can not be maintained that its effects are the other way round.

It is significant that Washington' s leading politicians, and especially members of the Senate, make use of those statistics to prove the correctness of their pet ideas. Thus, Senator Borah declared that the anti-trust laws must again be sharply applied. In his opinion, monopolies serve to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. This is one way of talking which finds no universal approval, for, to begin with, certain monopolies are unavoidable. Or would, perhaps, Chicagoans prefer to see two telephone companies operating in the city? Should there be two telephone systems in the city, everyone would be forced to have two telephones and to pay for them.

In such cases, the nature of the business is such that a single company must be given a monopoly. Furthermore, it is a generally accepted fact that the 3gasoline and oil industry was brought to the brink of ruin through ruthless competition. It is certain that this sort of thing serves neither the industry nor the great masses of the people. For this reason, President Roosevelt has designated repeatedly, as an aim of the New Deal, the suppression of sucidal competition between great corporations in the interest of economic revival. This policy has been consistently followed by the administration.

Senator Thomas, of Oklahoma, the leader of the inflationists in the Senate, likewise applied a critical eye to the statistics, and naturally arrived at the conclusion that the value of the dollar must further be reduced. His argument is not quite clear, for if the drastic reduction of gold value, as practiced hitherto, was a help to the rich, then a further reduction would of course benefit them even more. For Senator Costigan, of Colorado, the statistics held no surprise. He expressed his views quite substantially by stating that the rebuilding program should be speeded up.

Most radical in expressing his opinion was Senator Wheeler of Montana, and, 4judging from his political credo, this is easy to understand. He called for drastic measures which would guarantee a just distribution of wealth.

Every politician, however, views these statistics from his own standpoint, seeing in them proof of the correctness of his ideas and theories. What is more, the data are too scanty and incomplete to do anything with them. On the other hand, the reports recently published about the plans of the industrialists show distinctly that, during the next few years, they are going to spend enormous sums for modernization of their plants and replacement of obsolete machines. This is the best proof that industry is taking an upward swing.